Subject: Re: cormorant roosts
Date: Jun 12 11:13:03 1996
From: jbroadus at seanet.com - jbroadus at seanet.com




>Double crested and pelagics have extensive cormoranteries

"cormorantery"? arghh. I suppose all of this is in fun, but how far does the
language bend? "Rookery" has been a perfectly good word for colonies of sea
birds, and breeding places for sea birds, (and other critters like seals)
since the 19th century. I haven't found cormoratery in even the Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary. I seem to recall some of this wordplay started
with "heronry" (which my Webster's defines as a "heron rookery"), a word
with a longer pedigree of its own, but which also gets clumsy when used in
any way other than the genric. "a great blue heronry." "a great blue heron
heronry." "a heronry of great blue herons."? I like rookery. Sounds better.

-------------------------------------
Name: Jerry Broadus
jbroadus at seanet.com
901-16th. St S.W.
Puyallup, Wa. 98371
206-845-3156
06/12/96
11:13:03